Our editors-at-large have got you covered on all the latest news from around the world! Out of Italy, we have a dispatch on a Nordic literary festival in Milan; out of Puerto Rico, we learn about the creation of a new PhD Program in Creative Writing and get a roundup of new titles from an independent press; and out of China, we discover a controversy in literary media, new releases, and a conference dedicated to AI. Read on to find out more!
Veronica Gisondi, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Italy
On February 23rd, Andrev Walden’s “cursed men” inaugurated the 12th edition of i boreali nordic festival. Hosted by Milan’s Teatro Franco Parenti, the Swedish author stepped on stage with Veronica Raimo—author of the award-winning Lost On Me (2023)—to discuss his dazzling debut, Jävla karlar (2023). Just published in Italian as Maledetti uomini (2026) by Iperborea, the publishing house behind the festival, the book is also forthcoming from Penguin, which previously released it through its Fig Tree imprint.
Over the course of the evening, Walden and Raimo spoke about the book’s many unexpected turns, beginning with its remarkable success. “A coming-of-age story about a boy and his seven fathers,” Walden said, “I thought the book would only resonate with men.” Instead, it sold more than 350,000 copies in a country of ten million. Many female readers recognized their own childhoods in the novel, suggesting that “there’s really not much difference between boys and girls,” as the author noted. “Life is hard for all of us.”
Masculinity—men’s being and becoming—is, unsurprisingly, one of the book’s core questions. Early in the discussion, Raimo drew attention to the “subterranean violence” that runs through the book, experienced and narrated in the first person by a “poetic, fable-like, childish voice” that is at once “lucid, ironic, and heart-wrenching.” For Raimo, Jävla karlar belongs to a broader moment in which male writers feel increasingly compelled to interrogate themselves and the roles they perform. Walden’s questioning unfolds through “anarchic, hippie, shambolic” leftist environments of late-20th century Sweden, marginal communities that, though seemingly progressive, are far from immune to systemic, gendered forms of violence.
Walden creates an “iconography of memory” around his seven fathers, recalling events, objects, and details of his past with unfiltered immediacy. He speaks of these men with “tenderness and curiosity,” as Raimo remarked, seeking to understand them without judgement. Rather than imposing a top-down moral framework, he relies on the observational skills of the child-narrator, writing with the same youthful voice that, on the novel’s very first page, reminds the reader: “if anything sounds made up, you can be sure it’s true.”
Alejandra Quintana Arocho, Editor-at-Large (Puerto Rico), reporting from New York City
As I write this dispatch, I find myself in New York, which is currently more snow than city. After spending a month in Puerto Rico—where I met up with many dear fellow writers and lovers of literature and translation, among them previous Asymptote EAL Cristina Pérez Díaz—I feel inspired by the brimming potential of the new year, by what it might hold for all of us on the archipelago and currently living in the diaspora, as I am, and who want to keep on creating, despite and because of everything.
Already settled back in the city, this past week I stumbled on the news that the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, Puerto Rico, will launch a PhD program in Creative Writing and Literature in Spanish, seemingly the first of its kind in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. For Puerto Rican writers and literary scholars on the archipelago, this is a very exciting opportunity. Among those who spearheaded the program’s creation is Puerto Rican poet Mara Pastor, who has directed the Creative Writing and Literature degree at the undergraduate and master’s levels.
With seminars and workshops tailored to fit the needs of creative writers and scholars of literature in Spanish alike, the PhD program at Sagrado appeals to the literary community in Puerto Rico and to those across Latin America at large. I envision the program contributing to the growth of younger generations of writers on the archipelago, and I hope it spurs the creation of and funding for more initiatives related to writers’ professional and academic development, which are currently quite rare.
In other news: I’ll also note that last year ended, and the start of the year continues, with the publication of three new titles by the local independent press La pequeña, proyecto editorial, edited by Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón and Juanluís Ramos. Known for publishing emerging Puerto Rican and Latin American authors, as well as international voices in Spanish translation, the new books include Francisco Félix’s series of crónicas Tito Rojas ha muerto, Lorena Franco’s story collection Del huerto una cicatriz, and Orlando Javier Torres’s story collection Lugares para estar solos. Among the books published last year that I really enjoyed, wholeheartedly recommend, and dream of translating myself, is Daniel Rosa Hunter’s short experimental novel about the unraveling of a writer, La máscara del santo.
Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s literary bimonthly Fleurs des Lettres 字花, founded in 2006, is confronting a severe reputational crisis after its landmark 20th-anniversary issue used an unauthorized close-up photo of a grieving young man at the memorial for a devastating fire that happened in Tai Po on 26 November 2025. After receiving copies of the new issue, Fleurs des Lettres’s longtime distributor Hong Kong Reader Bookstore 序言書室 refused to sell the magazine, calling the cover exploitative, a move that shifted the controversy from literary circles into the public domain. The board of Fleurs des Lettres’s publisher Spicy Fish Cultural Production Ltd. issued a statement, explaining that it had objected but, citing editorial independence, did not block publication. Editor-in-chief Wong Man-liang (pen name Red Eye) defended the choice, arguing that Hong Kong lacks portrait rights laws, before resigning. The board then terminated his contract for breaching its terms. The incident ignited debates over portrait rights, editorial autonomy, and media ethics. Literary scholar Chris Song contributed an in-depth reflection on the incident to Cha: An Asian Literary Journal.
In related literary news, Hong Kong poet Yau Ching’s collection For Now I Am Here Growing Transparent, translated by former Asymptote Chinese Editor Chenxin Jiang, was recently longlisted for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The volume was Yau Ching’s debut bilingual collection, featuring poems on a range of subject matters from politics to love, complemented by still images from the poet’s own films and videos. Moreover, the Department of Translation at Lingnan University is organizing a conference on the topic of “Translators, Texts, and Contexts: Reclaiming Human Agency in the Age of AI.” This conference aims to reaffirm the essential role of human agency in translation by critically re-examining the foundational pillars of Translators, Texts, and Contexts. It seeks to explore how classical translation methodologies and human cultural insight remain indispensable in an era increasingly dominated by AI tools. The conference’s call for papers will remain open until 31 March 2026.
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